Flip Saunders coached Kevin Garnett for a decade in Minnesota, but he insisted he had nothing to do with teaching him how to trash talk.

“My kids wouldn’t approve of the language used at times,” Saunders said, “so I’m not taking credit for that.”

But Saunders, who will serve as a studio analyst for ABC and ESPN during the NBA playoffs, realizes that Celtics coach Doc Rivers can’t expect Garnett to stop talking trash. It’s always been a large part of what he does to motivate himself and intimidate opponents.

Carmelo Anthony can attest to that. Garnett got under Anthony’s skin while the Celtics beat the Knicks in New York this season and Anthony was suspended a game for trying to approach the Celtics’ bus after the loss.

So the Garnett-Anthony rivalry will be one of the many subplots when the Celtics open the playoffs against the Knicks at 3 p.m. Saturday in New York on ABC.

“He will do whatever he feels he needs to do in order to try to get that mental edge,” Saunders said of Garnett.

Saunders admitted that at times Garnett gets too emotional.

“What I used to tell KG,” Saunders said, “I had a saying, ‘Your greatest strength can be your greatest weakness if you don’t control it.’ ”

For the most part, Garnett controls his competitiveness, but it’s always a part of him.

“He’s not going to shake hands,” Saunders said, “with any of those Knicks for all seven games until the series is over and that’s just how he approaches it.”

Saunders believes getting in better shape this season helped Anthony lead the NBA in scoring. He also credits Knicks coach Mike Woodson for designing an offense that prevents teams from double teaming Anthony by spreading the floor with so many 3-point shooters.

“Their role players,” Saunders said, “actually make Carmelo a better player where many times your superstars make your role players better.”

Losing Amar’e Stoudemire to a knee injury made Anthony the undisputed top scorer for the Knick.

“He realizes he is the first and second option,” ESPN analyst Bruce Bowen said, “and for him that fits right into his wheelhouse.”

Saunders said he learned something important about the Celtics when he served as an adviser to the team during last year’s playoffs.

“Don’t ever count them out,” Saunders said.

Saunders thinks the Celtics match up well with the Knicks.

“I believe it’s going to be a tough series,” he said. “I think it’s going to be one of the most intriguing series of the first round.”

As Saunders pointed out, the Knicks set an NBA record for 3-pointers, but defending 3-pointers is a strength for Boston. In addition, the Knicks rank last in the league in assists.

“So they’re very much an isolation-type team,” Saunders said. “They want you to come trap, they want you to really extend your defense and anyone that’s watched Boston a lot knows their defense is a pack-it-in type defense. They’re going to zone it up, they’re going to load up and playing a team that maybe doesn’t move the ball a lot plays right into Boston’s hands.”

The Celtics stumbled into the playoffs by winning only five of their final 16 games, but Garnett and Paul Pierce are rested, healthy and Saunders believes “very dangerous.”

Saunders expects Boston to benefit from Garnett taking Knicks center Tyson Chandler 20 feet away from the basket and he believes Pierce must make Anthony work on defense so he can’t save his energy for scoring.

“As Doc has always said,” Saunders said, “this team is built for the playoffs. What I mean by that is they’re built with their defense to lock down defensively. They’re built so that the longer they play a team in a playoff series the better they become defensively because they understand even more so what types of wrinkles and counters teams are trying to run against them.”

In addition to Game 1, ABC will televise Game 4 at 1 p.m. Sunday, April 28, in Boston.

CSNNE will televise every other game of the first-round series with Mike Gorman and Tommy Heinsohn calling the action and Greg Dickerson courtside.

CSNNE will also air pregame and postgame shows for all games with Gary Tanguay and Donny Marshall in studio and Brian Scalabrine at the games.

Contact Bill Doyle at wdoyle@telegram.com. Follow him on Twitter @BillDoyle15